DUBLIN.- The Eclectic Collector Auction includes almost 40 lots of early printed maps and charts of Ireland and her coasts. A very early set of six maps by Joan Blaeu, lot 5 (estimate €1,500-€2,000) dates from 1654 and, while instantly recognisable as Ireland, show that cartographers had a firm grip on the eastern half of the island and its provinces but west of the Shannon there is a sense of ‘Here be dragons’ and guesswork. The auction’s first 20 lots are 17th century maps and charts by John Speed, Gerhart Mercator, Greenvile Collins, Joan Bleau and Robert Morden, with estimates ranging €120-€500.

By the 18th century reason and science win over and Ireland emerges as the island we know today but the maps are decorated with decorative allegorical cartouches and vignettes in the corners. A 1732 Map of The County of Kerry by William Petty, lot 22, estimate €200-€250, retains the earlier maps’ sense of being slightly askew and Herman Moll’s 1740 New Map of Ireland, Lot 23, estimate €200-€300, which is from his very rare Atlas Minor, includes a plan of St. Patrick’s Purgatory as one of the eight most notable features of the island - different times indeed!

Irish Nationalist figures.
As well as vast quantities of cups saucers, plates and other table wares, the 19th century potteries of Staffordshire in the British midlands produced ornamental figures of the famous men and women of the day. These figures were cast with earthenware slip (watered down clay) painted and fired. They were crudely modelled and, in the cases of the less well known, often the same mould was used for several people! Whytes’ Eclectic Collector auction on 21 January includes a collection of Staffordshire figures of Irish Nationalists including Theobald Wolfe Tone, lot 61, estimate €200-€300; Henry Joy McCracken, lot 62, estimate €120-€180; lots 78 and 82, Daniel O’Connell, estimates from €200-€500; and lot 102, figures of Charles Stewart Parnell and William Gladstone, estimate €300-€500.

Silk flag of an Irish Volunteer regiment.
Collectors of Irish militaria will be familiar with 18th century Volunteers’ and Militias’ cross belt plates, oval metal plates, silver or silvered metal for officers; brass or copper for other ranks, which are usually engraved with the name of their regiment and a patriotic symbol, such as a crowned harp. These are often the only surviving evidence of the existence of a regiment and, despite being metal, are sometimes so worn as to be illegible. Which goes to show how extraordinary a survival is lot 55 in the Whytes’ Eclectic Collector auction on 21 January. It is the silk, swallow-tailed flag, or guidon, of the Costello Volunteers.

The flag is of a form typically carried by light cavalry regiments and is two-sided. The front with black ground is centred by a mounted Volunteer offering his services to Hibernia, beneath Gaelic script ‘Mo Rish agus mo Thir’, which roughly translates as my king and my country; the reverse with red ground and a gilt Maid-of-Erin harp beneath 'Costello Volunteers', within a border of shamrock.

The Costello family were the first Norman family to assume an Irish 'Mac' name when they became Mac Oisdealbh. The title to their lands in Mayo, now known as the Barony of Costello, was lost to Theobald Dillon, 1st Viscount Dillon in the late 16th century. Dillon dishonestly acquired title to the lands in the surrender and regrant process and guerrilla attacks by the Costellos against the Dillons went on into the next century. The Costellos fought Cromwell and became raparees, Jacobite guerrilla fighters.

The Costello Volunteers were raised in 1779 and were also known as MacCostelloe’s Regiment. They were commanded by Colonel Charles Costello. Little is known of their involvement in the Great Rebellion of 1798 and this guidon seems to be the only artefact connected with these Mayo/Roscommon Volunteers. Estimate €20,000-€30,000.

1886 bandleader's mace, Brian Borhoime Band, Clontarf.
Lot 113 in Whyte’s Eclectic Collector Auction is a bandleader’s mace which had its first and possibly last public appearance in 1886. The head of the mace is decorated with shamrock, wolfhounds, an abbey with round tower and a horseman, engraved 'Brian Borhoime - Band - Clontarf - 1886'.

A report in the Irish Times of 4 August 1886 made reference to The Brian Boroimhe Band taking part in a parade on the occasion of the departure of the Lord Lieutenant, Lord Aberdeen, from Ireland. The newspaper gives a full-page account of this parade through the centre of the city. It took two hours to pass by and almost forty bands are mentioned as taking part, usually in association with various civic bodies, trade organisations or guilds. The Brian Boroimhe Band was associated with (or possibly engaged by) a parading contingent of basket weavers. According to the Irish Times, it was a parade that was ‘unparalleled in recent Viceregal history’. Estimate €400-€600.

1916 Rising Medals.
Whyte’s Eclectic Collector auction on 21 January includes three 1916 Rising medals. The most important of these is the 1916 Rising medal awarded posthumously to Joseph Plunkett and named to him to the reverse. In 1941 Grace Plunkett refused to attend a ceremony to receive her husband's 1916 Rising medal. This was probably a protest against the government's wartime policy of internment of IRA members, many of whom were known to her. When the medal was posted to her she threw it in the bin, where it was rescued by a friend; Grace told him to keep it as she didn't want it. Joseph Plunkett’s 1916 Rising medal is lot 151, Estimate €40,000-€60,000.

Lot 152 is a 1916 Rising medal and 1917-1921 War of Independence combatant's medal to Patrick Williams, Irish Citizen Army. Williams served as part of the City Hall and Boland’s Mill garrisons. Estimate €4,000-€6,000.

Lot 153 is a 1916 Rising Medal group to Galway Veteran, Bernard Grealish, together with personal effects. Medals to volunteers who participated in the Rising in Galway are very scarce and this example is accompanied by Grealish’s original Certificate of Military Service, his 1917-1921 War of Independence combatant's medal and various personal effects. Estimate €2,000-€3,000.

The George V ministerial box used by Seán Lemass.
As the Irish Free State was a British Dominion until the Republic of Ireland came into being in 1949, Irish government ministers were technically Ministers of the Crown and, it seems were issued with ministerial boxes. From 1932 to 1939, Seán Lemass was Minister of Industry and Commerce in the Government of the Irish Free State and Whyte’s will offer his ministerial box in their Eclectic Collector Auction on 21 January, lot 203, estimate €250-€300.

Ministerial boxes are used by British Government ministers to carry official documents. These cases are usually red but those used when travelling are a more discrete black. This box in gilt-tooled, black leather has a gilt embossed, crowned Royal Arms of George V and 'SECRETARY - MR LEMASS' to the lid. It was made by A. Armstrong and Co. Ltd., Dublin.

The night the Germans bombed Terenure
Fortunately, few places in Ireland can claim to have been bombed by the Nazis but the sleepy Dublin suburb of Terenure was one. Whyte’s will offer a piece of shrapnel recovered from Rathdown Park, Terenure following its bombing by German aircraft on 2 January, 1941, in their Eclectic Collector auction on 21 January. The bomb fragment bears an indistinct paper label and a military identity disk stamped 'NO 5 - RATHDOWN - PARK - 1 1 41'. The large shard of metal is horribly jagged and sharp and the residents of Rathdown Park were very lucky not to come into contact with it or its like. Lot 216, estimate €300-€500.

Gold coins for the canny investor
With some uncertainty in the global markets over President Trump and Brexit canny investors are putting money into gold. Small investors can acquire such an investment for as little as €120 for a gold half sovereign or €1000 for a gold Krugerrand. This auction has plenty of gold coins of all sizes and prices for both collectors and investors. Other interesting coins include King James II “Gunmoney” made from melting down cannon to pay his troops to silver ten shilling pieces issued in 1966 to commemorate the Easter Rising.

Historic Irish Banknotes
In the early 19th century there were dozens of banks all over Ireland, most of which went bust in the 1840s – a history which repeated itself recently. Banknotes issued by these institutions became worthless at the time but now can fetch up to €2,000 each – lot 486, a Hibernian Bank One Pound note of 1826 in almost perfect condition is expected to fetch €1,500 to €2,000, while a Waterford Bank Five Pounds of 1808 in tatty condition is valued at €300 to €400 [Lot 498]. Bonds issued by the Fenians to raise funds for the Rising of 1867, whose 150th anniversary occurs this year, are offered in this sale [lots 533-536] at prices from €300 to €500 apiece – their original face value ranging from Five Dollars to Twenty Dollars to be redeemed on the creation of the Irish Republic.